Buddy Roemer finished third in Puerto Rico's Republican primary

WASHINGTON -- There it is in the official "Presidente Resultados Isla" of Sunday's Republican presidential primary in Puerto Rico. Former Louisiana Gov. Buddy Roemer finished third -- behind only former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, and ahead of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and with nearly twice as many votes as Texas Rep. Ron Paul.

Jim Cole, The Associated Press archiveFormer Republican presidential candidate Buddy Roemer ran better in Puerto Rico Sunday than he did in New Hampshire, even after ending his GOP bid to make an independent run.

In fact, Roemer, without spending a penny or any time in the island commonwealth, trailed Santorum, who spent two crucial days last week campaigning there, by less than six percentage points, while Santorum trailed Romney by nearly 75 percentage points.

What's more, Roemer is no longer even running for the Republican nomination, having quit the GOP late last month to seek the independent Americans Elect and Reform Party nominations.

Roemer's vote total was not monumental. He received 2,638 votes, or 2.21 percent of those cast. But, it is the kind of finish that eluded him in New Hampshire, where he spent most of the last half of last year, or anywhere else, and the kind of finish that might have qualified him to participate in the nationally televised debates that could have provided his break on the national stage.

How did he do it?

The first and most obvious answer is location. Through the luck of the draw, Roemer had the top position on the ballot. Those voters dissatisfied with the other choices had no further to go than Roemer to find an alternative. Perhaps there were those who knew of Roemer and had a certain variation on buyer's remorse that the former congressman and governor had been excluded from the debates and, in effect, forced out of the field.

And, for those new to Roemer, "Buddy" is a friendly, welcoming name; think "Amigo Roemer."

"I appreciate the voters of Puerto Rico for their support. It shows my message of ending corruption and the way Washington politics works is resonating," Roemer told The Daily Caller. "I didn't even have to pander to the Hispanic community like both sides of the aisle like to do come election time."

Roemer also remains on the ballot for Saturday's Louisiana primary -- one of nine candidates -- and it will interesting to see whether he can improve on his Puerto Rico performance on his home turf.

Meanwhile, Roemer is running first among the declared candidates for the nomination of Americans Elect, a privately funded organization that is gaining ballot access in all 50 states for a cross-partisan national ticket to be nominated on-line. Running second among declared candidates, well behind Roemer, is Rocky Anderson, the former mayor of Salt Lake City who, like Roemer, won't accept individual contributions of greater than $100.